Portfolio | Web Site Design Assignment | Parallel Design

Just thought I would add an update on the latest thing that I am working on as part of my uni.

Within a group, we have been asked to create a website for a conference centre. The team went away and created a parallel design. From that,we would choose which design we prefer and use that for the website. The team collectively decided to go with my design. The design is not 100%, and a few changes still need to be done, such as the navigation and deciding on the logo, it provides an idea on how the final product will look.

With each website, I am trying to develop my skills further by doing new things with HTML and CSS. Additionally, I have started to use Adobe Illustrator to assist with the logo design.

You can have a look at my parallel design here.

Once the website is finished, I will update the portfolio accordingly

Portfolio | Surrealism Assignment Website

For one of my assignments, I was required to create five images in the style of an art movement (I chose Surrealism) and an essay about the chosen movement. Both of these were then to be included into a website and uploaded to a web server.

We were provided with a template website, although I altered this and created my design using HTML and CSS.

You can see the website here.

University – Year 2 Update

Image via Manchester Evening News

Well, it has been a while since I have provided an update in relation to how I am getting on at university. In fact, I haven’t done anything since I started the second year, so I thought it was best to just give a quick update while I am on my Xmas break. But where do I start?

Overall this has been a hard year for me. In fact I would go close to say that I do not like university at all this year.  I don’t feel as engaged as previous years, my concentration span is shocking and my organisation skills are just out of the window.

I am told that a lot of people experience the same problems that I am having and it’s just a second year lull, but come the next year the energy should return. Before anyone panics though, I have no intention of quitting university. After investing two years (and now a term) of my life on this course then I am going to see the degree though. I just want this year to be over and then I am on the final stretch.

Something else that has become apparent this year is that I have no idea what I want to do when I leave university. When I first started the degree, I was adamant that I would go down the web designer route, but as time goes on I am not sure if that is the route that I want to follow. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the web design stuff, but I don’t have the confidence in myself to make the move from hobby to career. I do have another year to think about it, but even if I didn’t go down the web design route, I would still want a career within this industry, so the degree will not be wasted. Only time will tell on how I will proceed.

Photoshop – Image Restoration

A while back, my mum gave me an image of my Grandad and asked if it would be possible to restore it to its former glory. Taking into account that I know very little about Photoshop, I said I would give it a try. Also this is a special photo, I didn’t want to screw it up, so daunted by the task I put it off for as long as possible. Today, I decided to sit down and attempt to restore the image. And overall, I am happy with the result.

The image was torn, crumpled and had part of it missing. In all honestly, it would take a true professional (and a lot of money) to try to restore it to its original form.

Original Image

Luckily, the majority of the image that was missing, was empty, so I used parts of the image else where to fill in the gaps. The arm was really difficult, but in the end I used the left arm, which I flipped and edited slightly to try to remove that it was a duplicate.

Additional tools used, included  the spot healing tool ( to remove the creases and other abnormalities), the patch tool (to copy smaller shapes for other areas) and the cloning tool (to blend the shades/outlines)

Finally, I cropped the image to give it a crisper cleaner look:

Edited Image

I know that the image is not 100% perfect (I am not happy with the right arm), but taken into account that this the first time that I have done something like this, I am extremely happy with the finished result.

Another term comes to a close

I have re-named the spring term as ‘Assignment term’ because, quite frankly, that is what it is! With the high amount of assignments that need to be handed in this term, what little hair I had left on my head, may have been pulled out with the stress of completing them all by their deadlines.

There was such a sense of relief that the final assignment for this academic year was pushed through the ‘blue box’, the requirement to have a pint was required (I find that this motion worked wonders a lot this year). I wonder when I am going to get the results from the assignments? Of all the seven assignments that I knew I had for this term, I have only received the mark back from one, which was MISO at a disappointing 56% (I know). I am just hoping that I don’t have to wait until June when I get the overall marks for the units.

So what is next? As much as I would love to have a rest, the next couple of weeks is about revision. Trying to cram three subjects worth of  information into this little head of mine to help pass the exams. Something that I am not looking forward to, but I am sure I will be fine.

After that is when I can start to relax…as long as I can get full time hours to help pay for the bills that is.

Assignments – Procrastination = Stress!!!

Image via www.edwardrecommends.com

Here was me thinking that I was a little more organised than I was last term, and to be honest I probably am, however the procrastination is still showing its ugly head.

On paper, I had everything planned. I have the sources spread out over the weeks, with time to write-up a detailed plan, essay and re-draft. What ended up happening was that it was all left to the last-minute and a uber cramming session pursued to finish the assignments on time. Which I did by the way.

So where did I go wrong? Why did it not go to plan?

In all honestly, all best laid plans never go to plan. So I am not going to stress myself out too much about. I just need to learn from the mistakes that happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

Options | It’s Time to Choose

Image via The Outsourcing Company

It has come to that time of year where we have to start thinking about what units we want to do in our second year. And I think I am all sorted.

Of the six units that I need to do, four are mandatory. These are:

• Project Development – as it says on the tin. Definitely a good skill to have in the work force.
• Web Scripting – this is about PHP and Java. Fingers crossed, it will make more sense next year. I have got myself a book to try to assist me with PHP.
• Web Site Design – this is linked to the web design element of Media Making. This is what I am really interested in, so I hope this unit is just as good.
• Search Engines – what’s a site if it appears low in a search engine. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for any website, so I am interested in this unit.

For the remainder two units that I need to choose them from the following four:

• Network Technologies – all about computer networks and networking. This is a no-no for me. It bores me to hell.
• Information Systems Design – this unit is about database design and data mining. Sounds interesting, but two hour lectures seem a little daunting. I struggle with one.
• Digital Media Production – this is linked to the design element of Media Making. I really enjoyed this element, so would be interested in learning more.
• Computer Law – You mention the word ‘law’ and you automatically start to get bored, but for some reason this appeals to me. Maybe because it is a good foundation for the job that I am going into.

So I think I have already have an idea on which units I will be doing next year. I have an options day next week which shall hopefully help finalize my decision.

However, there is one thing I am not happy with. The amount of group work that is involved next year. I don’t mind doing the group work, however my concerns are at the amount and the percentage heavied towards it. Six of the eight units all contain group work, with an average percentage loading of 50%. Like I said, I don’t mind the group work, but comparing group work at university to group work in a job is totally unrealistic. If you don’t do what your are asked to do at work, then you get the sack. Simple as!

Reading Week

Image via wikipedia

With no classes this week, I planned to play catch up with a number of the units. Unfortunately…that just didn’t go to plan.

My MISO group got together and went through our portfolio, and signed off everything as complete. It is now in the hands of God, well Sian and Rachel, on how the marking goes on that one. So in effect, we have completed our assignment for this unit. Yay!!!

I then also got together with Jen to go through our DigiComms presentation. We both now know what needs to be actioned, so we just need to complete it before the presentation next Thursday. To be honest, I am not that stressed about this as it will be easy to collate the information and there is only one other person in our class, so the presentation shouldn’t be that bad.

I do have issue in relation to our Media Making video. We have to give a proposal by next week, but I have spent the full week trying to get the team all together on Google Docs, and still to no avail. We have the idea, now we just need to put it all together. The majority of the team are on there, so will need to sort this out as soon as possible.

However, my main concern is the fact that I have delayed two essays until the last  minute…yet again. Instead of reading up on my sources, I have put it off until next week. So with less than a fortnight to go, I have a large selection of sources to read, essay to finish off planning (this I already started), and complete the essays. I know I work under pressure, but seriously do I need to do that to myself?

Something tells me, that next week is going to be a busy one.

First assignment handed in

Image via sexygadgets.net

Well this is it, the first assignment for the term was handed in this week, and taking into account that I was prepared for it; it was still a little stressful.

I have kept up with the photography assignment weekly, so I didn’t have a huge workload come deadline time. Just goes to show that if it is something that I am interested in then I don’t procrastinate. Just wish I could have this same mentality for the essays that are due in 2 weeks.

So the week leading up to the assignment date, all the photos were completed and optimized ready to be added to the site. Then the day before, I completed the coding for the web pages ready to upload. However, on the day, I wanted to improve the page further so spent some more time doing that. I then amended the CSS to bring it inline with the rest of the microsite. Frustrating as it was, especially with noise pollution from other frustrated students, I got it done with several hours to spare.

While I was in my next class, I went to look at my work to find out that it had disappeared!!! Let’s say I wasn’t a happy chap. Thankfully, I had time to re-add it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to redo the CSS work. But luckily, this assignment is about the photography and not the website.

For those interested in seeing the work I have submitted, I have created a blog showing the work.

Photoshop – Learning new skills

One of the assignments for university, is to take some pictures and edit them with Photoshop to enhance them. This has now been completed and submitted. So fingers crossed that I do well.

Previously I was never a big user of Photoshop. I tried to use it once, but got a little lost, so kept within my comfort zone of Fireworks (even though I knew it had a lot more limitations). However when I purchased, CS5 I decided that I would need to sit down and learn how to use Photoshop properly. I have a book that I intend to go through over the summer holiday.

These are the 5 images that I have submitted as part of my assignment. I have included the unedited and finished images to show the work that I have done:

Original Image

Image 1 – Portrait (Jen)

Edited Image

I took this image in the first week that we started the assignment, and is one of my favourites. I on purpose didn’t want to overdo the Photoshop and go for the airbrushed effect on the picture. Instead I opted just to reduce some blemishes, such as the mark created by Jen’s glasses. The one thing I did agree with Jen is that her freckles would not be removed.

I also love black and white images, as I feel it can offer a sense of emotion, but also hide possible bad lighting. As I don’t have the lovely lights I am using natural light only I thought the black and white was more ideal for the photo.

When I completed the grey scaling of the image, I looked at the soft and hard lighting to see what effects I could get. I preferred the soft lighting look overall, as the skin and lips just seemed perfect. However Jen’s eyes in hard lighting image appeared to ‘pop’ more, so I decided to blend them into the image to which created the final image.

Image 2 – Artistic portrait (Sash)

Original Images

I walk past ‘The Avenue’ sign regularly and have always thought it would be great to have the same person posing within different areas of the sign.

When speaking to Sash about it, the best way for me to describe the feel I wanted from the image was, that it was a group posing for a band photo, but Sash was going to be all the members in the group.

Edited Image

I had never used the camera tripod before, and it was obvious when taken the pictures as it kept on moving, so I thought I had ruined the chance of getting the photo to work. Personally, I think it has worked out just well.

Apart from the obvious, which is that I have blended 5 images together (just incase you didn’t notice), there was a number of small changes that I did as well, some of which are unnoticeable, but when I was working on the full size were bugging me. These included removing some of the obvious black marks and the bolt marks from the bottom of the lettering.

I also amended the hue/saturation slightly before cropping the image to remove the dead space around the image.

Original Image

Image 3 – Landscape (Castlefield)

I am lucky enough to live close to the canal, and Castlefield has some beautiful scenery around it. I have taken a load of pictures that it was in fact difficult to decide which image to use. In the end, I decided to use this one.

Edited Image

Unfortunately when I went for a walk around Castlefield, it was overcast and raining, which meant that some of the pictures were not good lighting and sky wise.

Within this image, I had to use brightness/contrast as well as use hue/saturation to bring out a lot of the hidden elements, such as the tree’s bark and the bridge. I also like the fact that the sky’s reflection on the water has been reduced.

Original Image

Image 4 – Object (Canal boat)

While I was walking along the canal collecting images for my landscape part of the assignment, I came across this boat that after taking a couple of pictures knew would be by object picture

Edited Image

The image was created by changing the hue/saturation to make the bricks and rust a little more obvious. Using layers, I then created an image as grayscale and then re-added the colour for the boat.

Just by having the boat in colour, I think it makes it more focal (which isn’t that difficult since it’s the only thing in the image), but I also believe you get a sense of story with all the bumps and scrapes along the boat.

Unedited Image

Image 5 – Pop art (Ben)

The last image that we have to submit was in the style of pop art. We could choose from either Warhol or Lichtenstein. As much as I love both artists work, I was not that impressed with the effect of Lichtenstein within Photoshop, so decided that I would create my own Warhol style image.

Edited Image

I wont go through the whole process of what I did to create the effect, but it involved using the cutout filter within Photoshop to create the edgy look, removing the back ground from the image. The image was duplicated and then layers within each image were brightly coloured and screen/multiplied to give the coloured effect.

As much as I like the finished product, it is one of those that you can do for as long as you want because there is so many alternatives available.

I just want to add…I know that these images are not perfect. I am not a photographer and I am new to Photoshop. And while other people, may laugh at the simple work that I have done…I am happy with the end results. However, I would like to know what you think of all the images. So feel free to comment away. Good or bad!!! Do you have a favourite?